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President Biden walks to Marine One from the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on Thursday. (Tom Brenner/For the Washington Post )

Special counsel will not charge Biden in classified documents case

Updated February 8, 2024 at 6:25 p.m. EST|Published February 8, 2024 at 3:59 p.m. EST
1 min

Joe Biden carelessly handled classified materials found at his home and former office and shared government secrets with his ghostwriter, but prosecutors decided that no chargeable crime was committed, according to a long-awaited special counsel report released Thursday.

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The 345-page Justice Department findings lifts a cloud that has lingered over the president for more than a year, though the criticism of his conduct could still hurt his reelection bid.
Special counsel Robert K. Hur found evidence that President Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen” but that evidence “does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Hur’s team concluded that prosecuting Biden would be “unwarranted based on our consideration of the aggravating and mitigating factors” laid out in Justice Department prosecution policies.
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The 345-page Justice Department findings lifts a cloud that has lingered over the president for more than a year, though the criticism of his conduct could still hurt his reelection bid.
Special counsel Robert K. Hur found evidence that President Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen” but that evidence “does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Hur’s team concluded that prosecuting Biden would be “unwarranted based on our consideration of the aggravating and mitigating factors” laid out in Justice Department prosecution policies.
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More on classified documents

Here’s what we know: According to a long-awaited special counsel report, prosecutors will not charge President Biden in the classified documents investigation. Here are the key findings from the report, which painted a scathing picture of Biden’s memory. The Justice Department has a criminal probe involving former president Donald Trump’s personal properties. Here’s an explanation of what classified documents are and the penalties for mishandling them.

When and how classified documents were found: A comprehensive look at when, where and how the two batches of classified documents were found in unauthorized locations in Biden’s former private office and his Wilmington, Del., home.

How Trump, Biden cases compare: There are key differences between the discovery of classified documents at Biden’s home and former office and Donald Trump’s retention of hundreds of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. Here’s our fact check. Nonetheless, the furor over the classified documents could make it harder for Democrats to blast Trump.